The Guru Report: The Locals Heading Quickly to the Deep End as Conference Play Gets Under Way

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — As we just crossed the other side of the hyphen, in this instance, traveling the 2018-19 season, the nitty gritty part of both the national and Guru local D-1 schedule in terms of the conference wars leading to tournament seeding, leading to who makes the NCAA tournament, is getting under way.

Several years ago, though with the onset coming right at the Xmas/New Year’s break it would take imagination to become reality, the Guru thought this is the time to have the real media day after October.

Why?

Though all those days have conference names atop them, the talk then is about the entire season, some talk about league races, and then everyone goes their separate ways cheering for each other, trying to build safety-valve at-large profiles, until now.

Also at this point we have production to gauge where do we go from here. Some profiles have changed since October. Key players have gotten injured. New helpers via transfer are becoming eligible. Young teams at the start of November are older.

There are still some key non-conference games left for TV attractions and resume beefing up such as UConn at Baylor Thursday night and the Huskies still to play Louisville and South Carolina.

Locally, the Big Five will be decided later this month when Villanova and Temple visit Penn at The Palestra January 16 and January 23, respectfully, which for the Quakers have become nice fill-ins across the month before the annual Friday/Saturday gauntlet begins and for the third year Ivy League tournament, this time at Yale in Neew Haven, Conn.

To mention locals, in the Guru group many have either begun or will begin over this week to start off at the deep end of the pool.

Villanova fell to a one-loss Butler team last Friday at home in the Wildcats’ Big East opener, evened things up in Finneran Monday holding off Xavier and now head to a formidable Friday night road opener at Creighton before moving on to Providence Sunday.

Temple after beating La Salle Sunday lost a tough 54-53 non-con Wednesday night in Pittsburgh at Duquesne, the preseason favorite in the Atlantic 10.

It was a closely-fought contest all the way against the Dukes (6-7) but the Owls (4-8) were unable to drop the game-winner as time expired.

Alliyah Butts had 15 points, three steals and three assists for Temple, while freshman Marissa Mackins had 14 points, and senior Shantay Taylor scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds. Additionally, Alexa Williamson, the freshman of the week in the American Athletic Conference, had six points, four rebounds, and two steals.

What is not on the report from Wednesday is the absence of Mia Davis, the Owls’ dynamite scorer and rebounder who went down late in the La Salle game with a seemingly ankle injury and her status moving forward is unannounced though there expectations that she would be back at some point.

Now Temple gets into AAC waters and up first is a visit Saturday at 3 p.m. in McGonigle Hall from USF, who would be the preseason heavyweight were not the No. 1 team in the nation in Connecticut also holds membership.

Mark January 20 in the Liacouras Center if you’re wondering when the Huskies make their annual visit.

USF, though, has its own adversity with the season-ending injury to Kitija Laksa.

The Bulls (9-5) though were holding their own until the current three-game losing streak kicked in with setbacks to Creighton, 83-76, and Virginia 74-67, in the Florida Sunshine Classic and at LSU 78-49.

When it comes to diving in at the deep end, no one does it better around these parts than the Ivy League where Penn and Princeton annually get it going and then cease fire against the rest of the Ancient Eight until the end of the month.

When the curtain closed last season with Princeton regaining Ivy glory from Penn, the expectation was that the Tigers would own the turf while the Quakers retool this time around.

But Penn has been the surprise in the city with an 8-2 record after running roughshod 75-53 at Stetson in Florida on New Year’s Eve. 

In that one Ashley Russell had 23 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, four steals and two blocks as she has offered something different to contribute in the wake of assist queen Anna Ross’s graduation.

Phoebe Sterba had 12 points, while Eleah Parker had 11 points and already owns some weekly Ivy player citations, and Kendall Grasela scored 10.

The Quakers record could easily be 9-1 with the one loss respectable at defending NCAA champion and then-No. 1 Notre Dame and the other a tough one to Maine 47-46 at Navy’s invitational in Annapolis.

Penn has also rolled through Drexel, a surprise lopsided outcome between the top two defensive teams in the nation, and struggling Saint Joseph’s and La Salle, harboring expectations that a first-ever outright Big Five crown is attainable.

So the Quakers will be bringing something to the table Saturday at 2 p.m. when they arrive at Jadwin Gym for the Ivy opener.

As for the Tigers, perhaps Penn should have petitioned to play them sooner.

Coach Courtney Banghart had to deal with adversity that saw Princeton win big at nearby Rider and then lose seven straight, some of which were narrow encounters like a near upset at Penn State.

That’s what happens when starters are out with injuries, most notably reigning Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie with a broken shoulder.

But the Tigers (8-7) stopped the skid right before Alarie’s return and since her return, as good as ever, the streak-stopper has transformed into seven straight wins heading into Saturday’s battle.

To round out the Big Five, it’s been a struggle with highs and lows for Saint Joseph’s and La Salle.

The Hawks, having lost 75 percent of their scoring, are one of the worst offensive machines in the nation, though at times there have been some glimmers. But Saint Joseph’s (4-9) after an impressive win at Sacred Heart before the Xmas break returned dead in the water last weekend losing Friday night 48-30 at Delaware, only the second loss ever to the Blue Hens, and then a tough one on New Year’s, 49-48, at Navy.

In some recent seasons the Hawks have treated the coming of the New Year with a happening and suddenly became Atlantic 10 contenders, notably last season advancing to the conference title game and earning a WNIT bid.

No one has any idea what this time will bring though the good news is this has not been your grandmother’s Atlantic 10 in terms of non-conference performance.

Help is on the way for the Hawks but not until next year with a stellar recruiting class.

It all starts Saturday with a 1 p.m. visit to VCU in Richmond before returning home for the first time in a long while when Saint Louis visits Hagan Arena Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. for the annual field trip day.

La Salle (3-11), meanwhile, was going to have to be a process with new coach Mountain MacGillivray leaving as associate head coach at Quinnipiac and coming home to rebuild the Explorers.

It took nine games before the first victory was in the hopper but when it came it started a 3-of-4 run, the latter two in Providence before losing the next to the host Friars and then after the break coming back to the city and getting hammered by Temple Sunday.

There’s still a chance to win one Big Five game when playing Saint Joseph’s in the double-counter game on the A-10 sked.

But first the Explorers will start at a deep end spot in the A-10, traveling to Dayton Saturday at 1 p.m. and then continuing on to VCU next Tuesday before coming back to Tom Gola Arena a week from Sunday to host Massachusetts.

Drexel, with a veteran unit, has been one of the better teams in the city, leading the nation in scoring defense. The Dragons (8-3) started with a competitive loss to Quinnipiac, had a hiccup losing 71-63 to Wright State before righting themselves but then running into a 55-39 buzzsaw from their neighbors at Penn.

All ended well however with a 58-35 win at Richmond.

Now it’s time for the Colonial Athletic Association and Drexel also is another team on an opening weekend in treacherous waters.

The Dragons open Friday night hosting Towson at 7 at the Daskalakis Athletic Center and then on Sunday host preseason favorite James Madison at 2 p.m., the team picked ahead of them by the coaches.

A year ago, the teams split, Drexel won the top seed for the CAA tourney, dodged the Dukes when they fell to Elon, which then upended the Dragons for the NCAA bid.

Delaware (5-7) is another team hit by adversity losing CAA player of the year Nicole Enabosi before the season to an injury.

Freshman Jasmine Dickey has been a nice addition.

Being Drexel’s traveling partner, the Blue Hens get fed JMU first on Friday night at 7 in the Bob Carpenter Center at home in Newark with the game televised on the NBC Sports regional network.

Towson then visits Sunday at 2 to wrap up Delaware’s opening conference weekend.

Up at Rider (4-7) coach Lynn Milligan gave her Broncs a challenging schedule of all different styles to prepare for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference,

A highlight was beating host Saint Joseph’s in the Hawk Classic in the first round, while others on the slate included the neighborhood game with Princeton, a narrow loss to Navy, a loss in the title game of the Hawk Classic to an improved Boston College squad, and losses to Bucknell and Georgetown.

Rider gets a break considering what other Guru teams are getting handed in their conferences for openers and the Broncs play just one game this weekend, hosting Fairfield at 2 p.m. at Alumni Gymnasium.

That leaves us with the biggest surprise in the Guru local group coming out of the Big Ten duo of Penn State and Rutgers who met Sunday at Rutgers Athletic Center at 4 p.m. on the conference’s second weekend.

The Lady Lions (7-6) first host Wisconsin Thursday night at 7 in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College. This comes after opening at then-No. 4 Maryland, another opening tough spot, and then traveling to Indiana, which has been rolling at took a 83-75 win.

The non-conference has been an adventure and things could be worse considering a 74-72 upset spoiler escape at home with Providence and likewise 79-71 in overtime with Princeton. There was a home wipeout by nationally-ranked California, a credible win at Fordham, and home losses to Stony Brook and Duquesne.

That leaves us with Rutgers, which will be interesting moving forward. 

The opening slate against a cupcake brigade was highlighted by Coach C. Vivian Stringer’s 1000th career-win following Pat Summitt, Tara VanDerveer, Geno Auriemma, Sylvia Hatchell, and Division II’s Barbara Bentley on the women’s side.

Then in the Vancouver Showcase came two disappointing lead-yielding losses to Drake and Gonzaga before returning to winning ways in the non-conference agenda.

Opening weekend began with a narrow 45-41 escape at home over Northwestern to start the Big Ten, making one wonder what was going to happen at No. 4 Maryland after last season’s drubbings by the Terrapins.

What happened Monday afternoon on New Year’s Eve was stunning.

The Scarlet Knights (9-3) pulled a 73-65 upset of the Terrapins (12-1) at the Xfinity Center in College Park as Stasha Carey scored 18 points, Ciani Cryor with 12 points, nine rebounds, and 11 assists had a near double double, while Charise Wilson and Noga Peleg Pelc each had 10 points.

In the win over Northwestern, by the way, Stringer off her previous stint at Iowa and now at Rutgers became the first women’s coach in the Big Ten to grab 200 conference wins.

Maryland in the Rutgers loss got 18 points from Taylor Mikesell, 15 from Kalia Charles, 11 points from Blair Watson, and 10 from Brianna Fraser.

How much of it was a lesser than normally challenging non-conf and how much was the Rutgers defense, the next time around will tell.

But for now mark Rutgers, which returns to non-con on Friday hosting Brown of the Ivy League at 7 before PSU arrives Sunday, as back on an NCAA path and with the Big Ten loaded with parity of rebuilding the chance is there to right the misdeeds of last season’s slide down the stretch.

In fact, if business is taken care of this weekend, a return to national ranking status on Monday would be in order.

Nationally Speaking: The Other Conferences

For a long time like UConn back here in its league, the Pac-12 and Stanford were synonymous. But now the nation is staying up late to watch excitement nightly with Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, California, and Arizona State in the mix to varying degrees, with others capable of upsets.

The Southeastern is now led by Mississippi State during South Carolina’s ‘tweener year though the Gamecocks are still NCAA material, with Tennessee right behind, and then there’s Texas A&M, and a renaissance Kentucky squad. Auburn has been hot while several others will keep most of the frontrunners honest.

Baylor should dominate the Big 12 with Texas next best and would be stronger were the ‘Horns not hampered by injury, while the others will fight to see who makes NCAA inclusion.

Defending Notre Dame speaks for itself but not without Louisville making itself heard in the Atlantic Coast and the league play will say more about North Carolina State’s case to be upper class or near upper class.

And that’s the report for now.